Fabricating Ivy

08 November 2016

The AA Greece Visiting School took place in the old town of Chania. It was a 10 day intense, enjoyable and informative workshop exploring digital and analogue design processes. The group comprised architectural students and young architects from across the globe. I am extremely happy that I took part and it was a great experience and learning process.

During the workshop we focused on the production of a 1:1 prototype, the form was derived from a series of digital and physical simulations. The final prototype was exhibited at the Sabbionara Gate in Chania and will be exhibited in Berlin July 2017.

In particular, from day one, we were given a design brief with the scope of:

The proposals for the structure and the projection were developed through the exploration Chania's urban fabric and data gathered from the city. The interaction with the structure was achieved by giving the opportunity to the visitors to choose the projections on the structure via an app.

The design and projections were produced in a variety of computer programmes, including Autodesk Maya, Rhinoceros 5 and Grasshopper. These programmes were taught during the workshop and along with sketches and physical models, informed the final design.

Overall it was an intense and exciting journey starting with the concept design, study models and culminating in the final fabrication process. Furthermore, the AA Greece Visiting School lecture series by internationally renowned architects took place in order to disseminate fundamental design techniques and relevant critical thinking methodologies. The lecturers were Shao-wei Huang associate at Zaha Hadid Architects and Dr. Tuba Kocaturk reader in Digital Architecture, school of the Arts PGR Lead, and programme director of MSc Digital Integrated Design.

Special thanks to be given to Alexandros Kallegias the Director of the academic programe AA Greece Visiting School, the director of AA visiting Schools Dr. Christopher Pierce, and to the excellent tutoring team Alexandros Kallegias, Yue Shi, Pierre Bianchi as well as Rallou Nikolaidou and Charalampos Doukas.